In a letter addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Alberto Van Klaveren, the Jewish Community of Chile notified that it is canceling its participation in the official event for the International Day of Rememberance of the Victims of the Holocaust due to the policy adopted by the current government.

The lack of adequate condemnation of Hamas for the massacre of last October 7, the promotion of actions against Israel, the comparison of Gaza with Berlin in 1945, the trivialization of the Shoah and the feeding of hate speech and Antisemitism from the government, as well as not properly protecting the Jewish Community, which has since suffered vandalization of synagogues, attacks on institutions and allowed demonstrations that promote agressions on Chileans of Jewish origin are the reasons given.

The Wiesenthal Center’s Director for Latin America, Dr. Ariel Gelblung, stated that “the International Day for the Commemoration of the Victims of the Holocaust was an initiative of the United Nations created in 2005 so that, remembering what happened, states could establish the necessary policies so that this event does not happen again. We do not need to stand with those really to honor dead Jews unless they are prepared to respect living ones. The current policy of the Chilean government is aligned with those who vindicate the actions of Hamas and criticize Israel for defending itself. It states that it supports the two-state solution but does not condemn the criminal actions of a terrorist group that constitutionally calls for the destruction of the Jewish State and seeks to annihilate all Jews in the world. We support the decision of the Jewish Community, hoping that the Boric administration will reconsider and understand that the world does not remember the liberation of Auschwitz to feel sorry about dying Jews on the brink of annihilation, but rather to avoid the repetition of that phenomenon today."

For further information, please contact Dr. Ariel Gelblung at +54 9 11 49695365, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).